Here is a recipe you can try. I made these a few years ago and found them to be nice and crunchy without using alum. I think it's the ice that makes them crunchy.I scaled down the recipe to make 2 x 500 ml jars or 1 quart since I didn't have many at the time.

Directions:1- Wash cucumbers, and place in the sink with cold water and lots of ice cubes. Soak in ice water for at least 2 hours but no more than 8 hours. Refresh ice as required.Sterilize your canning jars and lids in boiling water for at least 10 minutes.

2- In large pot or smaller depending on the batch your making over medium-high heat,combine the vinegar,water and pickling salt. Bring the brine to a rapid boil.

3- In each jar,place 1 half clove of garlic,one head of dill,then enough cucumbers to fill the jar. Then add 1 more garlic halve you can probably add more garlic if you like and 1 sprig of dill. Fill jars with hot brine. Seal jars, making sure you have cleaned the jar's rims of any residue.

4-Store pickles for a minimum of 8 weeks before eating. Refrigerate after opening. Pickles should keep for up to 2 years if stored in a cooled dry place.

The things critical to crisp dill pickles are soaking the cukes in ice water for at least 2 hours and ensuring the brine is at a full boil when poured over the dills.

I think if you go back and look at Marc's pickle tasting thread, the kosher style ones were not a hit with the family. He claimed the family threw the pickles at him, but we know he is prone to wild exaggeration.

Careful, I'll send the kids to your place to teach you a lesson. They aren't shy to start a food-fight when it comes to bad tasting food, and it appears this would be your downfall.

EDIT:maryjane, yeah I think I did that recipe already. Failure. But I think I discovered why all these things fail. Too high of a temperature. All I have is a thermometer for making beer, not a cooking thermometer. Have to get one and see if this is the issue (which i'm now positive it is).

The internet is a very, very, serious entity created solely for commercial gains.Canadian Gardening made me a hardcore separatist

I use to buy the bicks pickles but find them to soft not as they use to be, I now prefer the no name brand from Independent and No Frills I beleive it's a yellow label with black writing mini dills are nice and crunchy go figure no name preferred over bicks...

As for them getting to soft it could be Too high of a temperature cooked to long?

I think when I did mine, I used a big tall pot on the stove waited for the water to come to a good boil then placed the jars inside waited for it to come back to a good boil and left them in for 10 minutes those were the small jars. And they were nice and crispy. No thermometer used.

maryjanej wrote: I used a big tall pot on the stove waited for the water to come to a good boil then placed the jars inside waited for it to come back to a good boil and left them in for 10 minutes those were the small jars.

Yeah that's what my books say as well. 10-min for the 500-ml jars, 15-min for the 1-L jars.

I noticed the liquid boiling in the jar (or close to it) when it was done. Not sure if that's supposed to happen. Don't think it is.

Will try that american EDU link/info and try 85C for 30-min instead of a full rolling and spitting boil. Will have to do another batch by tomorrow or Saturday. So I'll find out soon enough if the look is different.

The internet is a very, very, serious entity created solely for commercial gains.Canadian Gardening made me a hardcore separatist

Since the boiling water bath is to kill mold and bacterial spores that can cause spoilage, the internal temperatures have to reach a killing level.High acid and salt content inhibits bacteria, so temperatures do not need to reach the levels needed by low acid foods .. High acid .. you can get away with boiling water bath temperatures, but low acid requires pressure cookers and temps well over 212 F / 100 C internal to kill off such things as botulism bacteria ... Those suckers can ruin a lot more than your whole day.

Yesss, but according to that edu site, processing longer at a slightly lower temp (85C) works.

I also have a pressure canner, but i'll only use that for, as you said, low acid stuff.

Maybe I'll call Bernardin tomorrow and tell them to trouble-shoot my pickle shrinkage and shrivelage. Has to be the temp. I'll recheck the books, but I don't think they specify a temp. Just full rolling boiling water.

Sending one kid to you and one to Donna. Each with a jar of soft pickles!

forewarned... hehe

Now to call those pickle packers and see what they say...

EDIT:

Ok, so I called Bernardin (1-888-430-4231) and gave them the story.

They questioned the pickles themselves and said I followed what OGrubber stated for the proper pickle (link above, last Feb). And I stated I bought the Eurika "brand" from a seed house which is made for canning pickles. They agreed on both.

So they told me to do another batch, this time to use the 5-hr ice-bath (which no one I know does) and to also use calcium chloride (which is a pickle hardener, or makes the pickle retain hardness, which no one I know does). I have some here so I said no problem.

They said call back Monday with the results.

I asked about temp, and stated the American EDU said to use 85C for double the time, he would only reply to make sure it's boiling hard (ie 100C). So I didn't get a direct reply on this part. Not sure if they wanted to give a direct reply to this. Will repeat it on Monday since I'm sure an ice-bath and calcium chloride isn't going to change anything... but never know.

So for this batch, I have to follow the Bernardin recipes again since they want the results to their recipe.

He said if it fails again, then we have to look at the pickle you are using. Eh I don't know about that. I used a diff pickle the other year with the same results.

I thanked him for taking the time to discuss my pickle shrinkage.

I think the laws of physics just cease to exist in my kitchen, much like Donna's

Anyone have input, or something else to try with this batch?

The internet is a very, very, serious entity created solely for commercial gains.Canadian Gardening made me a hardcore separatist